Q. 1. ) How did novels produce a number of common interests among varied readers?
Ans. ) As readers were drawn into the story and identied with the lives of ctitious characters, they
could think about issues such as the relationship between love and marriage, the proper conduct
for men and women and so on.
Q. 2. ) Which new groups formed the new readership for novels in England and France?
Ans.) New groups of lower-middle-class people such as shopkeepers and clerks, along with the
traditional aristocratic and gentlemanly classes in England and France formed the new readership
for novels.
Q. 3.) How did Walter Scott contribute in developing literary style while writing novel?
Ans. ) Walter Scott remembered and collected popular Scottish ballads which he used in his historical
novels about the wars between Scottish clans.
Q. 4. ) Give an example of Epistolary novel.
Ans.) Samuel Richardson’s ‘Pamela’, written in the eighteenth century, told much of its story through
an exchange of letters between two lovers. These letters tell the reader of the hidden conicts in
the heroine’s mind.
Q. 5. ) What was the benet of serialisation of novels in magazines?
Ans. ) Serialisation allowed readers to relish the suspense, discuss the characters of a novel and live for
weeks with their stories—like viewers of televisions soaps today.
Q. 6. ) How do novels touch the lives of common people?
Ans. ) Novels do not focus on the lives of great people or actions that change the destinies of states and
empires. Instead, they are about the everyday life of common people.
Q. 7.) How did Charles Dickens’ novels depict the terrible effects of industrialisation?
Ans. );Charles Dickens in his novel ‘Hard times’ describes Coketown, a ctitious industrial town, as a
grim place full of machinery, smoking chimneys, polluted rivers, people and buildings that all
looked the same.
Q. 8. ) What is depicted in Oliver Twist?
Ans.) It is a tale of a poor orphan, who lived in the world of petty criminals and beggars but was later on
adopted by a wealthy man and lived happily ever after.
Q. 9. ) What is shown in Emile Zola’s ‘Germinal’?
Ans.) It is a story in the life of a young miner in France, who explores the harsh conditions of miners’
lives. It ends with the strike by hero, which fails and his co-workers turn against him and all hopes
are shattered.
Q. 10.) What could be seen in most of Thomas Hardy’s novels?
Ans. ) Thomas Hardy wrote about traditional rural communities of England that were fast vanishing.
The old rural culture with its independent farmers was dying out.
Q. 11. What was the benet of novels in Vernacular languages?
Ans. ) Vernacular languages were spoken by common people. By coming closer to the different spoken
languages of the people, the novel produces a sense of a shared world between diverse people in
a nation.
Q. 12. ) Name the famous novel of Jane Austen.
Ans. ) ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
Q. 13.) What is depicted in Jane Austen’s novels?
Ans. ) They make us think about a society which encourages women to look for ‘good’ marriages and nd
wealthy or propertied husbands.
Q. 14. ) What kind of novels were written for young boys?
Ans.) Novels for young boys idealised a new type of man; someone who was powerful, assertive,
independent and have daring.
Q. 15.) Name some important novels written for young boys.
Ans. ) R.L. Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ and Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ became great hits among
younger generation.
Q. 16. ) Which love stories became famous among the adolescent girls?
Ans. ) ‘Ramona’ by Helen Hunt Jackson and a series entitled ‘What Katy did’ by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey
were pretty popular among the adolescent girls.
Q. 17. ) What was the impact of colonialism on novels?
Ans. ) The novel originated in Europe at a time when it (Europe) was colonising the rest of the world.
The early novels contributed to colonialism by making the readers feel that they were part of a
superior community of fellow colonialists.
Q. 18. ) Give an early example of novel writing in India.
Ans. ) Banabhatta’s ‘Kadambari’ written in Sanskrit in the seventh century is an example.
Q. 19. ) Which was the earliest novel written in Marathi?
Ans. ) The earliest novel in Marathi was Baba Padmanji’s ‘Yamuna Paryatan’, which used a simple style
of storytelling to speak about the plight of widows.
Q. 20.) Who has written ‘Muktamala’?
Ans.) Lakshman Moreshwar Halbes wrote ‘Muktamala’.
Q. 21. ) How did translations of the novels help people?
Ans. ) Translations of novels into different regional languages helped to spread the popularity of the
novels and stimulated the growth of the novels in new areas.
Q. 22. ) Which was the rst Malayalam novel published in 1889?
Ans.) ‘Indulekha’ was the rst Malayalam novel written in the modern form.
Q. 23. ) What was depicted in ‘Pariksha-Guru’?
Ans. ) Srinivas Das’s novel ‘Pariksha-Guru’ cautioned young men of well-to-do families against the
dangerous inuences of bad company and consequent loose morals.
Q. 24.) Name the best-seller of Devaki Nandan Khatri.
Ans. ) His best-seller was ‘Chandrakanta’ – a romance with dazzling elements of fantasy.
Q. 25. ) Which novelist brought a change in Hindi novel writing?
Ans. ) It was with the writing of Premchand that the Hindi novel achieved excellence. He began writing
in Urdu and then shifted to Hindi, remaining an immensely inuential writer in both languages.
Q. 26. ) What is written in ‘Sewasadan’ of Premchand?
Ans. ) Sewasadan mainly deals with the poor condition of women in society. Issues like child marriage
and dowry are woven into the story of the novel. It also tells us about the ways in which the
Indian upper classes used whatever little opportunities they got from colonial authorities to
govern themselves.
Q. 27. ) How could novels be read in groups?
Ans. ) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay would host a jatra in the courtyard where members of the family
would be gathered. He also read his novel ‘Durgeshnandini’ to his friends in his room.
Q. 28. ) Why did Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay become most popular novelist in Bengal?
Ans.) By the twentieth century, the power of telling stories in a simple language made Sarat Chandra
Chattopadhyay the most popular novelist in Bengal and probably in the rest of India.
Q. 29.) How did novels help in establishing relationship with the past?
Ans. ) Many of the old thrilling stories of adventures and intrigues set in the past. Through gloried
accounts of the past, these novels helped in creating a sense of national pride among their readers.
Q. 30.) What kind of a character was of Indulekha of Chandu Menon?
Ans.) Induleka was a woman of breath taking beauty, high intellectual abilities, artistic talent and highly
educated in English and Sanskrit.
Q. 31. ) How has Madhavan, the hero of Indulekha been presented?
Ans.) Madhavan was a member of the newly English educated class of Nayars from the University of
Madras, a ‘First Rate Sanskrit Scholar’. He is dressed in western clothes but kept a long tuft of hair,
according to the Nayar Custom.
Q. 32. ) Who was Rokeya Hossein?
Ans.) Rokeya Hossein was a reformer who, after she was widowed, started a girl’s school in Calcutta. Her
novel ‘Padmarag’ also showed the need for women to reform their conditions by their own actions.
Q. 33.) Which novels show the life of upper caste people?
Ans. ) Novels like ‘Indirabai and Indulekha’ were written by members of the upper castes and were
primarily about upper-caste characters.
Q. 34. ) What is depicted in ‘Saraswativijayam’?
Ans.) It is a mounting strong attack on caste oppression. This novel shows a young man from an
untouchable’ caste, leaving his village to escape the cruelty of his Brahmin landlord.
Q. 35. ) Who wrote ‘Saraswativijayam’?
Ans.) Potheri Kunjambu, a ‘lower-caste’ writer from North Kerala wrote this novel.
Q. 36.) Name the novel written by Advaita Malla Burman.
Ans.) ‘Titash Ekti Nadir Naam’.
Q. 37.) Which was the rst historical novel written in Bengal?
Ans. ) Bhudeb Mukhopadhayay’s ‘Anguriya Binimoy’ was the rst historical novel written in Bengal.
Q. 38. ) What do you know about Bankim’s ‘Anandamath’?
Ans. ) It’s a novel about a secret Hindu militia that ghts Muslims to establish a Hindu kingdom. It was
a novel that inspired freedom ghters.
Q. 39. ) What kind of characters are mostly depicted in Premchand’s novels?
Ans. ) In his novels, one meets aristocrats and landlords, middle-level peasants and landless labourers,
middle-class professionals and people from the margins of society.
Q. 40.) Which character is highlighted in Premchand’s novel ‘Rangbhoomi’?
Ans. ) The central character of ‘Rangbhoomi’ is Surdas. He is a visually impaired beggar from a so-called
‘untouchable’ caste. Surdas struggled against the forcible takeover of his land for establishing a
tobacco factory.
Q. 41.) Who are the main characters of Premchand’s novel ‘Godan’?
Ans. ) The novel tells the moving story of Hori and his wife Dhania, a peasant couple. Landlords,
moneylenders, priests and colonial bureaucrats—all those who hold power in society from a
network of oppression, rob their land and make them landless labourers. Yet Hori and Dhania
retain their dignity to the end.
